Maybe There's a World Where "Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die" Is Good
People spend a lot of time on their phones. Many have called it an addiction, and it's commonplace to see people swiping up through videos on TikTok (or comparable apps) in every walk of life. You could say we've almost become a society of zombies, obsessed with our phones. Director Gore Verbinski's latest, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die, takes that concept to the next logical step– everyone has become a slave to A.I., and there's only one way out– actor Sam Rockwell.
Well, not exactly Sam Rockwell, but a character with no name who has come to our present day to make sure the world doesn't fall into despair. He shows up at a diner to assemble a team capable of saving the world. The only problem is that no one in the diner knows him, and convincing any of them to go along with his crazy apocalyptic conspiracy is unlikely. Luckily for our main character, he comes equipped with a reset switch. He simply hits that button, and he can repeat the night over and over. Think of this like a combination of Edge of Tomorrow and Terminator 2.
Some of his companions this time around are Janet (Zazie Beetz) and Mark (Michael Pena), teachers who've noticed something weird going on, Susan (Juno Temple), who is struggling through a devastating loss, and Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson), a strange woman wearing a princess costume. If they have any chance of stopping this terrible future, maybe this is the group that will finally do it.
How do you take a movie starring Sam Rockwell, Juno Temple, and Haley Lu Richardson and make it so boring? Outside of the main thrust of the plot, getting our unlikely group from the diner to a residential home where A.I. sleeps, the characters that have plot armor are all given detailed backstories. These backstories are like something you'd see out of rejected Black Mirror episodes. Each of them points to how technology has become the bane of our existence, whether it's social media numbing our brains, lifeless recreations of people we once knew, or even cell phone signals themselves.
It's a shame because, at its core, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die wants to provide a good time. There is simply too much baggage and tonal shifts that knock the entire thing off-kilter. What's worse is a final plot twist that registers as a reminder that we've wasted two hours of our time. Good luck finding the joy in this one. [D]
Member discussion